Thursday, November 20, 2014

So..I'm watching a football game last weekend and the Green Bay Packers are on and it was their week to wear their "throw back" uniforms. They should have thrown them away.

The uniforms were dark green with an orange circle on the chest inside of which was the player's number. Plain orange helmet, which wasn't authentic because it had a face mask attached.

In that it was similar to the Steelers' even more horrid throw back uniforms, from the previous week, which were black with yellow stripes making them look like the Pittsburgh Bumble Bees.

Usually when teams plan their throw back uniforms -- which is basically a gimmick to sell more merchandise -- the reach back to the uniforms they wore in a successful era in the team's history.
So in the Packers' case the logical choice would be the Vince Lombardi era of the 1960's and the Steelers' logical choice would be the Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris multiple Super Bowl days of the '70s.

The problem is the two teams are still wearing those uniforms. They found something that looked good and stuck with it.

So for throw back uniforms they gone waaaaay back -- to the 1930's. In the Packers' case that makes sense -- they had a championship team back then, one of the strongest franchises in the league -- thus explaining how a nothing town on the "frozen tundra" of Wisconsin, with a population about half the size of Richmond or Arlington still has an NFL franchise. In the Steelers' case it doesn't make much sense..they were pretty awful from the 30's to the 70's. In fact, those jerseys may date to a time when the team was still called the Pirates.

There are other teams with the same dilemma. The Cowboys' throw back uniforms are from their inaugural season in the league, when they got beaten like a red-headed stepchild. By the time the team got good in the mid-60's, they'd changed to the familiar uniforms they wear now.

And, of course the Cleveland Browns' uniforms have been pretty much the same (boring) since they were formed in the 1940's. I think they may have worn white helmets at the start. The Colts have been wearing pretty much the same uniform since the Johnny Unitas era...despite the fact that they were stolen and moved to the Midwest.

There are a couple of teams that should ditch their present uniforms and go back to their old look. Three of the AFL's founding teams -- the San Diego Charges, New England Patriots (remember with the minute man snapping the ball on the helmet?) and the Buffalo Bills should go back to their roots.

And the St. Louis Rams should go back to the classy blue and white they wore in Los Angeles .

Maybe, they should go back to Los Angeles too, but that's a topic for another day.

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Steve Vaughan covers state and city politics and government, tourism and business for the Virginia Gazette. He has 20 years of experience and is an award-winning reporter and columnist. He lives in Richmond with his wife, son, dog and two cats. His daughter attends college in North Carolina. Vaughan is an Orthodox Skeptic and licensed wiseacre.